Hiking on historic Allatoona Pass Trail

Going on trips is very nice but it delays my writing posts and visiting my friends' blogs, so I am behind again on both counts.  We returned to New York City last week, and I'll write about it in the future, but now I am going back to the first week of November when we hiked around Lake Allatoona.  My last post covered our visit to the lake on Wednesday, November 6.  The following day, on Thursday, we drove about 13 miles (20 km) from our house to the Allatoona Pass Civil War Battlefield Interpretation Trail.  We had never been there before - it was a nice sunny day and a good one for walking.  We drove along the old fortification below the former railroad bed and arrived at the trail-head.

Allatoona Pass (also called "Deep Cut") is located on the western shores of Lake Allatoona.  A bloody Civil War battle took place there, in October 1864, after the fall of Atlanta.  The Confederate Army had retreated from Atlanta and planned to attack the Federal garrison of 976 troops defending the railroad cut at Allatoona.  At sunrise on October 5th, 1864, after an all night march, Major General Samuel G. French's Confederate division of 3,276 men attacked this federal garrison in an attempt to sever the Union supply lines by taking control of the rail line.  But French did not know that a few hours earlier a Federal force of 2,025 men under the command of Major General John M. Corse had arrived on a train from Rome, Georgia, as reinforcement for the Union troops there.

After an intense attack of several hours the Union troops held the pass and the Confederate forces withdrew as they were also running out of ammunition.  The Battle of Allatoona Pass had been a vicious and bloody one.  The casualty rate had been high with 1,603 men from the two sides killed or injured - the Confederate suffered 27% casualties and the Union 35% for a combined percentage of casualties equaled only by the Battle of Gettysburg.  Brigadier General French later said, about this almost forgotten battle, that it had been "a needless effusion of blood." As a result it would take almost three weeks to bury the dead from both sides.

Battle of Allatoona Pass by Thure de Thulstrup, Swedish born American, 1848-1930

At the time there was no lake.  Lake Allatoona was to fill this valley in late 1940s.  In the 1860s Allatoona was a small village with just a few houses, a railroad depot and crossroads.  The Western and Atlantic Railroad had a pass cut through the Allatoona Mountains in the 1840s.  Solid rock was hit after 60 ft of dirt was cleared.  Slaves brought in from east Georgia completed the 180 foot deep pass.  Before the battle all the trees had been removed to provide fields of fire.  Below is a photo taken in 1864 and a drawing from 1888, after the tracks had been widened in 1886 to the new standard for Pullman cars.

In 1928 the railroad was relocated a few hundred feet west of the pass and the battlefield was developed.  The Allatoona Pass is now a beautiful walking trail where the tracks used to run.  It is a moderate hike of about 3 miles round-trip.

There are many interpretive markers giving detailed information about the history of the area and the fierce battle fought there in 1864.  Not much has changed and it is said that few Civil War battlefields have remained as untouched as the Allatoona Pass Battlefield - it is not a well known place (I had not heard of it and have been living here for decades) and in a remote area - even with our GPS we got lost twice before finding the trail.  The Clayton/Mooney house shown in the top 1864 photo above is still there.  Before the battle it was used as headquarters then after the battle it became a hospital to treat some of the 1,600 casualties.  There are bullet holes in the gables.  Below is a picture I took of this ancient house.

I understand that little has changed since the time of the battle.  There are preserved earthen forts and extensive undisturbed trenches and outworks.  We started our hike by first going down to a Memorial Field with monuments to both the Confederate and Union soldiers who fought there (no Georgia plaque though as there were no troops from Georgia in the battle.)  Please click on collage twice to enlarge and to read the plaques.

We walked toward the mountain cut and stopped to read another marker.

As we proceeded down the trail we started to see the two massive rocks on each side of the path.  But first we turned right onto an ancient trail which was part of the old "Tennessee Road" or "Sandtown Road."  It had been an Indian trail, then a dirt road for wagons going toward Alabama or Tennessee.  The wheels of the wagons made deep grooves which are still visible.  It was a lovely trail.

After a while we returned to the main dirt road, where the railroad tracks used to be.  There was no one walking but us.  It was sunny but the trail ahead was in the shade.

We stopped to read more interpretive markers.

It was a bit dark entering the gorge and it seemed to me much colder than at the beginning of the trail.  Both my husband and I felt the chill in the air and buttoned our jackets.  I don't think I'd like to hike there alone in the evening ... too much violent history and dark shadows.  I placed a picture showing my husband to give some perspective for the size of the steep walls of the man-made "deep cut."

My husband had walked ahead while I was taking pictures of the rocky walls and I hurried up the trail to join him as it was sunnier ahead - and warmer.  The ground was covered with dead leaves and I did not make a sound walking.

I found him in front of a marker.  It was the grave of the "Unknown Hero."  It seems that the grave used to be across the railroad tracks and protected by a wrought iron fence.  But when the tracks were reworked the body was exhumed and reburied in this lonely spot of the trail.  I hope the Unknown Hero did not mind the move.  Click on collage to read the marker.

We kept walking on the trail which was running along side of Lake Allatoona.  It was mid-week in November so there were no other visitors on the trail or on the lake.

There were some old steps, covered with moss, going down to the lake.  We sat on the bottom step for some time, admiring the scenic view.

As I had read that the trail eventually dead ends, we climbed back the steps to the trail and walked back.  On the opposite side of the lake I saw a small cove at the bottom of a little hill.  The reflections in the water were so soft, just like a watercolor palette.  I stopped for a while and took pictures.  My husband went ahead.  Further on I stopped again at the grave of the soldier, took a photo, then met my husband at the entrance of the gorge.

There is a little road at the trail-head where the antebellum house is located.  A few steps away is a Bed and Breakfast - the "Lake Allatoona Inn" which was built in 1893 as a Victorian mansion for a family who had been living there for decades before the Civil War.  Then we drove home.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I finished this post yesterday evening but wished to read it one more time this morning before publishing it.  I did ask my husband how he had enjoyed the hike and he said "it felt a bit eerie walking there when I was alone .... like something was not right."  I had felt the same way so I looked on the Web to find out if others had had the same feelings.  There were many references to the site being haunted for years.  Here is a site mentioning one of the sightings, click here to read it.  Another site said "I firmly believe Allatoona Pass Battlefield to be one of the most haunted Civil War sites of North Georgia ... it was a short but extremely violent battle ... evidence suggests that at least the majority of the dead were buried in or very near the battlefield, many in mass graves ..."  It is one of the favorite places for groups researching paranormal activities.  Reports of gunshots, voices, ghost trains, temperature drops of about 10 degrees in the old train bed, gunpowder smells have been reported.

Then I read several reports of people seeing a "light" at the base of the grave of the Unknown Soldier.  I am skeptical but I still took a second look  at my pictures.  I went back to check my last picture of the grave which I had not published ... and I saw something bizarre I had not noticed before.  I showed it to my husband, and we could not figure out what it is.  So I am showing it below.  The picture on the left is the first photo I took of the grave and on the right the second one I took when I was alone.

I did not touch the second picture in any way.  This is the whole original picture below.  There is a white something behind the base of the marker.

I am going to crop it now to enlarge it.

There is no body of water behind the grave.  It is on a flat area with a ditch behind it, with no rocks just trees.  What is the little white light?  I thought it must be something on the lens.  So I checked the next photo, taken 8 seconds later.  There is not white on the bottom left of that picture, so it is not a smudge on my lens.

Do you see what I see under the grave marker?  I am going to make a circle around it.

Here is the picture below again.  I don't know what this white fog-like thing is.  There is part of a tree behind the pole of the marker.  If it were a shadow it should be dark and not light, no?  plus the marker is in the shade so how could it reflect light behind it?  I just don't understand it.  There were no rocks there, just a hill behind the marker with all the trees.  There must be some technical explanation - can someone explain it to me?

Fall color at Lake Allatoona

This has been a colorful week, or should I say, full of colors - fall colors that is.  I was going to look at my pictures of New Orleans for a post but, I did not.  Leaves on our trees started to change into their fall colors from light yellow to dark red and the colors entered our rooms.  We have so many trees around the house, some very close, that when the sun is shining through them it bathes the rooms in golden tones.  I started to take photos through our windows.  (Click on collages twice to enlarge.)

My cat Mitsuko also likes to look out of the window - but I think she is looking at squirrels.  I took my camera and went outside to catch the colors in nearby trees.

While I was taking these pictures a little bird was serenading me - very lustily.  I finally found out where he was perching and took its photo, too - but I don't know what type of bird he is.

Actually I started catching colors with my camera on Tuesday evening, November 5th.  This was the day we were supposed to vote.  So my husband and I went to our voting precinct - it was closed.  We were surprised but it is a church and they were having a musical meeting.  We drove around to see where we could vote.  Finally someone at the Marietta high school told us we were not eligible because we did not live within the "city limits" of any of the towns close to us - Marietta, Kennesaw and Acworth, GA, and these were municipal elections.  We live about 6 miles from each town but not inside any of them.  As we were driving back home we saw a beautiful sunset - something we cannot watch from home because of all our trees.  We stopped and I took several pictures.  The pictures are not very good but it is not the camera (the Lumix,) it is me - I focused the camera on the leaves of the trees, but the colors in the sky were splendid.

Atlanta is about 30 miles (48 km) southeast from our house, but if we drive in a northwestern direction we are close to a huge lake called Lake Allatoona.  On Wednesday afternoon we drove to a park within this lake that is located on a peninsula.  This 1,776-acre park is called Red Top Mountain and is about 8 miles (12 km) away from home.  We were hoping to see more fall colors.  There are more than 15 miles of trails through this park.  We hiked on Sweet Gum Nature Trail for a while.

We left the trail and came back.  I was pleased to sit on a bench to rest.  We then checked the maps to see where we would drive next.

The name of the park comes from the red color of the ground in Georgia, composed or red clay - Red Top Mountain. The soil gets this rich red color because of its high iron-ore content.  You can see the red clay on the banks of the photo on top of this post - I did not touch the color or Photoshop it.  In Georgia with so many pines, or even magnolia trees, there is this riot of colors in the fall - all the shades from the changing leaves, the red clay and the evergreen trees.

When I stopped to take more pictures a little bird was watching me.  He was so cute!  Do you know what type of bird he was?

We then drove down toward the lake.  There was hardly any people around since it was mid-week in November.  It was a warm day for November - about 71 F (21.5 C.)

We decided to go up a hill to have a panoramic view of part of the lake.  There was a cemented area with an historical marker.  This small area is on the hill on the left of the dam overlook in the picture below (the photo of the dam at the bottom of collage, under the postcard) at about 9 o'clock.  All the area around our home is rich in history and Civil War battles.  Last year at this time I wrote a post about Fall in Kennesaw National Battlefield Park which is about 4 miles down our road.  Click here to read it.

Lake Allatoona is a man-made lake.  In 1950 the US Army Corps of Engineers developed the Allatoona dam for flood control, hydroelectric power generation, fish and wildlife management, recreation and water supply.  They started blocking the Etowah River in 1949.  The lake is 11 miles long, is about 145 feet deep (44.19 meter) at its deepest point and has 270 miles of shoreline (454.5 km.)  When it is full the lake spans more than 12,000 acres (or approx 48.5 square km.)  There are 14 day-use parks, 8 marinas, 15 public boat ramps, 688 campsites, 435 picnic sites, restaurants, hiking trails, fishing, hunting, etc., for the yearly 7 million visitors.  But there were few visitors that day.  Below is a vintage postcard called Allatoona Lake as the Government calls it (but it is known as Lake Allatoona around here) and a Corps of Engineers' photo of the dam.

I walked to the side where stood another historical marker called "Etowah and the War" with the Etowah River in the background.

The view from the top of this hill was lovely from anywhere one looked.  I could see the whole dam structure, the power house (which produces more than 150,000 MWH at peak times) and the churning waters of the Etowah River coming out of the dam; I could also glimpse at the beautiful valley further away.

We drove closer to the shores of the lake, to a boat ramp.  There was a lonely fisherman on his boat.  We watched him for a while.  I hope he caught some fish - the species known to be in the lake are: bass (largemouth, hybrid, stripped spotted and white,) carp, crappie, bream (bluegill, redbreast and red ear sunfish,) gar and catfish.  You could see the red banks of the lake as the water level is down several feet.  A power boat went by - the only boat we saw that day.  It was getting late but the sun was setting on the other side of the hill.

We drove back toward the bridge.  We stopped for a few pictures then drove home.

We visit Lake Allatoona seldom, which is a shame since it is close to our house - many people drive hours to reach it.  So we decided to visit it again this week.  On Thursday, Nov. 7th we went back and hiked Lake Allatoona Pass, and on Friday Nov. 8th we visited Lake Acworth which is an outflow of Lake Allatoona and is even closer to our home - these outings will be in upcoming posts.  I'll end this post with Georgia O'Keeffe's painting of radiant autumn leaves.

Autumn Leaves painted by Georgia O'Keeffe, American- 1897-1986

Riding the train called The City of New Orleans - part 2

This is a continuation of my post from October 28, 2013.  Please read part one first in order to follow the journey better.

Even before The City of New Orleans train rolled on these tracks there had been since the 1880s a primary rail link through the Mississippi River region and the cotton fields of the Delta.  The railroad then was called The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, incorporated in the year 1882, and part of the Illinois Central Railroad system.  The cars in the old 1880s railroad were yellow and many "blues" songs include the "Yellow Dog" in their tunes.  Black farmers trying to find better paying jobs in the North took the railroad north and left their towns in the Mississippi Delta - some small towns were left empty and tenant houses were abandoned.  So many African-Americans left the segregated South then for Chicago on the railroad that the local police would stop the sale of train tickets or would even drag black riders off the cars as there was not enough labor force left to cultivate the cotton fields.

Now in the present, swampy lands were coming into view with small streams covered with moss.  The view would change quickly from wide open spaces to areas overgrown with weeds.  I took countless pictures as the bright landscape rolled by.  (Click on collages twice to enlarge.)

But soon the landscape changed as we were approaching Lake Pontchartrain.  Now we saw mossy trees and pools of water reflecting the sky and clouds.

Then we began to see the marshy shores of Lake Pontchartrain behind some trees.  The train stopped for a while to let a freight train go by so I took a picture of the landscape with my Nikon D40, top picture below, and almost the same scene with my Panasonic Lumix, shown on the bottom below.

 The train came closer to the water.  The lake looked immense.  In 1669 French settler and explorer, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville (1661-1706) made a journey through these lakes and bayous with a Native American scout.  He named the lake after Louis Phelipeaux (1643-1727) comte de Maurepas and comte de Pontchartrain, under French King Louis XIV.  (D'Iberville was the founder of the French colony of Louisiana of New France and his brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded New Orleans in 1719.)

Lac Pontchartrain covers an area of 1,600 square kilometers or 630 square miles with average water depths of from 3.7 to 4.3 meters (12 to 14 feet.)  It is oval in shape and about 64 km by 39 km (40 x 24 miles.)  It is not a true lake but an estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico.  We followed its long curve for quite a while.

The train had to stop several times as freight trains went by but eventually we arrived close to New Orleans and started to see some housing under heavy rain clouds.

Before we stopped at the New Orleans station the conductor announced that we would move to another set of tracks and to stay seated.  While this was happening the conductor played the song "The City of New Orleans" sung by Johnny Cash over the PA speakers.  It was so moving to listen to the song and be in the train - I just loved it.  We then pulled into the station which looked quite empty, apart from some stationary trains.  I could also see some Greyhound buses parked on the side.

 We left the station and took a taxi to our hotel.  It was warm and overcast.  By the time we reached our hotel it was pouring rain (tropical storm Karin was expected soon) but when we went out to eat, the rain had stopped.

Future posts will show what we did with our time in and out of New Orleans.  On Sunday, October 13th, we returned to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal for our ride back to Memphis.  We arrived early.  The station is clean and light.  The station was designed in 1949 and built in 1954.  It has a long mural on Louisiana and New Orleans history painted by Conrad A. Albrizio, American (1894-1973.)  There is an area reserved for the Greyhound Bus Lines which offer a connection to Baton Rouge, LA., and other cities.

Again I was shocked to see so few passengers and one employee at the counter.  New Orleans' population was 484,675 in 2000 but after Hurricane Katrina it dropped.  It is slowly gaining again - statistics indicate a population of 369,250 for 2012.  But even so, there are only 3 trains coming and leaving from New Orleans.  In addition to the City of New Orleans train which arrives at 3:40 pm each day and leaves for Chicago at 2:05 pm daily, arriving in Chicago the next morning at 9:20 am, there is the Crescent.  It originates in New York City, stopping in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC., Atlanta, etc.  The third train is the Sunset Limited departing 3 days a week from Los Angeles.  We checked our luggage, free of charge, and waited to board the train.  When the time arrived we were given the number of our seats.  This time we were in Coach Seats that were very roomy and comfortable.

We were seated on the opposite side of the train from our previous ride.  We left New Orleans looking at the vehicles driving on the freeway close to us.  We rode along the freeway for a long time - all the way to Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge.  The scenery was wild and constantly changing.  I tried to photograph the many birds I saw but the train was going too fast or bumping at the wrong time.

I would like to drive on that bridge, but riding on a bus would be better as I would be able to sit high and see the scenery. (Vintage postcards below.)

We left New Orleans at 1:45 pm and were due to arrive in Memphis at 10:00 pm.  At 2:45 pm we stopped in Hammond, Louisiana.  My Route Guide said that we were now back in the bayous, exotic swamps and moss-laden cypress trees.  The French Canadian settlers arrived here during the late 1700s (now they are called Cajuns.)  The train station has not changed much in Hammond from the look of the vintage postcard below, bottom right hand side.

This time we went to the Cross Country Cafe car to have a snack.  The train stopped at Hazelhurst, LA, and a little girl in the next booth moved from the window so I could take a photograph.

We talked with one of the conductors for a short time while he was drinking a cup of coffee.  He told us that sometimes the train runs fast, and also must slow down often, depending of the state of the rails.  Our train was about full with 240 passengers, 120 of them getting off in Memphis.  He said that it happens that the train makes unplanned stops.  For example during the "Strawberry Festival" in Patchatoula, LA, the train was stopped and every passenger was given some fresh strawberries.

The sign above is about "Little Brother" Montgomery (1906-1985.)  He was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist, self-taught, who was born in the town of Kentwood, LA.  I found a YouTube of Little Brother Montgomery playing "Brothers Boogie."

But it was getting dark so I stopped taking pictures and read while The City of New Orleans bumped on toward Memphis.  We arrived in Memphis on time and so, we had to leave our shiny silver train.  We waited on the platform for our checked suitcases.

 Before we arrived in Memphis the conductor did not play the song called "The City of New Orleans" by Johnny Cash as it was played when we arrived in New Orleans, but I still like Arlo Guthries' version best as he sung it during a Tour in Atlanta in 1978 (video below.)  This had been a very pleasant journey on the City of New Orleans - a memory I will cherish.